Data module: managing foreign database tables

The Data module lets you use database tables that are foreign to Drupal.

You can 'adopt' a table in your database that ordinarily Drupal would not be aware of. This might be external data you have imported, or a table that another application has created. You can modify this table's schema in Data's UI, and you can also create custom tables in the Data UI.

A table that Data is aware of can be shown in Views. It can also be declared as the base table for a custom Entity type. This allows Field API fields to be added, and relationships to be created to other entities with Entity Reference fields.